


Sentimental

by kriadydragon



Category: White Collar
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-04
Updated: 2011-03-04
Packaged: 2017-10-16 02:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kriadydragon/pseuds/kriadydragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not like Neal materialized out of thin air.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sentimental

About three months after taking Neal on as a CI, Peter receives a call that sounds like the start of a joke: Neal walks into a bank then walks out five minutes later looking nervous and hiding something in his jacket. Seeing as how banks and Caffery belong in the same sentence about as much as classical art and Caffery, Peter feels it a good idea to pay Neal a visit, just to make him sweat.

Neal's loft has changed.

Peter is FBI, trained to take in details at a glance, honed to a knife's edge thanks to Neal's love of cat and mouse games. There's not a lot he misses when it comes to Caffery but it takes him a moment to pinpoint what doesn't belong. Like looking for Waldo in a room full of the rich and famous, he spots it pretty quick on the counter next to the small wine rack.

A lion. A little stuffed lion with a matted mane, slightly stained, slightly patched and a perfectly good waste of the fifty cents it probably took to fish it out of a box full of toys using a twitchy crane.

Peter wanders idly to the counter and picks the lion up. It's light weight, and despite looking off-colored it smells clean. He holds it up for Neal to see and smiles, perhaps a little too sweetly. The lion is worn and well-used, and if it were worth millions (or was the hostage in a scam to con millions from some sentimental rich guy) then it wouldn't be sitting in plain sight.

“So just how much 'classic' does Kate prefer, exactly?”

Neal frowns, clearly confused. “That's not Kate's.”

Peter looks at the thing. Maybe it's unfair to think, but he's always pegged Neal as the kind of guy to see possessions as either an anchor pulling him down or a status symbol; that if he was going to keep something, risk dragging it around (or keep it tucked away in a safety deposit box) then it would have to be worth _something_.

Neal plucks the lion from Peter's hand while giving Peter a flat look. He holds the lion carefully, protectively, even, as he moves away, putting distance between it and Peter.

It is unfair, because everyone has a sentimental side.

Everyone has a past.

Neal didn't grab the lion in time for Peter to miss the tag, the words “made in china” hidden mostly by messily scrawled letters in black sharpie, written during a time when a child was just learning to spell and trying very hard to do it on his own; a backward N, a crooked L, and two squiggly Es in between

The end


End file.
